


Black Feathers

by E_K_Hannila



Series: Caurinus [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, Guns, Part of a novel eventually, bullet wounds, unfortunately canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 03:57:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19737841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/E_K_Hannila/pseuds/E_K_Hannila
Summary: Never let the sociopath have a gun.





	Black Feathers

**Author's Note:**

> As some of you may know, these scenes are eventually going to be chapters in a full novel. Most of them, anyway -- a lot of them are just fun little rambly bits and pieces that I wrote cause they're neat.  
> This is not one of those pieces. This chapter is canon to the full book, so if this ever gets published, this will be in it.

I woke to a soft tapping on my heel. David was sitting just outside the tent.

“ _What?”_

“ _My gun’s gone missing,”_ David said. _“Can you help me look?”_

“ _Why? Can’t you do it yourself?”_

“ _You’re the pickpocket,”_ David said. _“It seems you’d be better at going through other people’s stuff.”_

I sighed, dragging myself out of the tent. _Ian first,_ I thought. _He’s the least likely to wake up._

I tentatively felt along the edges of his blanket, but there was nothing there except him and Echo. Both were fast asleep.

Nick wasn’t in his tent; I didn’t expect him to be. I scanned the treetops, searching for him. He was sitting in a tree, cutting and weaving a pair of sandals from a piece of leather.

I landed next to him, watching him work. He didn’t seem to notice me for several seconds.

“You all right?” he finally said, looking up from his work.

“ _David’s gun is missing,”_ I said. _“You wouldn’t know where it went, would you?”_

Nick shrugged. “I’ve been kinda out of it tonight. I haven’t seen much past this.” He held up the half-finished sandals. “When you find it, tell me.”

I nodded and jumped down. _“He hasn’t seen it.”_

“ _Then that leaves Jonas,”_ David said. _“I’m not surprised he has it.”_

“ _Wonder which of us he plans to shoot,”_ I said, running over to the lump of blankets that was Jonas’ bedroll. I threw the blanket aside to see that he wasn’t there.

David sighed, looking up at the sky. “Come out, Jonas,” he said. “We know you’ve got the gun. Hand it over, and I’ll consider it a prank.”

“Hand it over, he says,” came a mocking voice from the trees. “You don’t have a weapon, David, and I do. Don’t pretend it’s the other way around.”

He strolled out of the woods, toying with the pistol. “Mocking a man with a gun is a good way to get shot.”

“So?” David said as I quietly walked over and woke Ian and Echo. “Who are you gonna shoot?”

“Well, I was thinking I’d start with the magpie,” Jonas said, pointing the gun at me. “Then the brat… then Nicholas… then you.” He ended with the gun pointed at David. “Probably let the harpy go, or take him with me.”

Echo trilled anxiously, shuffling over to David. “Bad?” he squeaked.

David nodded, patting Echo on the head. “Bad.”

I marched up to Jonas, standing toe-to-toe with him.

“ _You really wanna do this right now, magpie?”_ he said, the light on his temple flickering. _“You wanna kill someone in front of your boyfriend?”_

“ _He’s seen me kill before,”_ I replied. _“Many times. It won’t trouble him now.”_

“ _Ah, but I’m his brother,”_ Jonas said. _“Or at least, that’s what he wants to believe.”_

David started to move toward us, but stopped when Jonas pointed the gun at him. “Don’t do it, raven,” he said. “I’m within strangling distance of your friend.”

“If you kill him, I’ll tell every human camp within fifty miles that there’s a rabid falcon in the area,” David said. “They’ll find you.”

Jonas rolled his eyes. “You really think they can do anything to me?” he said.

Faster than I could react, Ian dove at Jonas, throwing him to the ground. The smaller falcon locked his arms around Jonas’ neck, hanging on tight as he tried to throw Ian off. Nick tackled Jonas, pinning his wings and holding him in place, while David tried to grab Jonas’ arm to get the gun out of his hand.

A gunshot went off, and the four men dispersed as if a grenade had exploded under them. Jonas crawled out from under Nick and ran off, leaning against a tree for a moment. David lay on the ground, dazed, with Ian kneeling next to him.

I charged at Jonas, who took off, and I did the same. He made the mistake of going for the forest – he was fast, but he didn’t know how to fly through trees like I did.

I lost him after a few moments, but the rustle and crack of failed turns kept me on his tail. By the time I caught up with him, his feathers were so broken and tattered it was a wonder he could stay in the air.

I cornered him against a patch of thick trees, grounding him almost immediately, and pounced on him. _“Why did you do it?”_ I hissed.

Jonas spat blood in my face, grinning with red teeth. “Because you four have a hefty bounty on your heads,” he said. “Cole promised me a twin throne with him if I brought back your neurochips.”

A fist swung up and slammed into my jaw with blinding force, throwing me off of him. Jonas stood up, picking up a broken tree limb. “Especially yours,” he said, bringing the branch down on my back. I howled in pain as my wing dislocated, but was able to grab the branch and wrest it out of Jonas’ grip.

I pulled myself to my feet, my wing dragging on the ground, and threw the branch aside. Jonas smacked me with a wing, but I caught the last few feathers, dragging him towards me and catching him in a headlock.

I dragged Jonas up against a dead tree, pinning him against it with my forearm on his throat, and bared my teeth in a silent snarl. _“You will die here,”_ I growled.

Then I snapped out the blade in my arm and stabbed him in the gut.

He seemed more startled than pained, gasping as the dagger sliced through him and hit the tree behind with a dull thud. Blood seeped from the wound, dripping to the ground and pooling around his feet.

He looked down at it, then up at me… and smiled. The smile turned into laughing, hysterical laughing that chilled me worse than anything I’d seen or heard before.

“You can’t kill me,” he said, even as his skin went pale. “No one can kill me.”

After he said this, his laughter turned manic, as all semblance of sanity drifted away from him, leaving him looking as an insane shell of his former self. I almost pitied him. Almost. 

I snapped the blade off, leaving it embedded in the tree, and walked away, Jonas’ mad laughter echoing behind me. Even as I traveled out of earshot, the sound of Jonas’s laughter echoed within my mind, sending chills through every fiber of my body. As I got closer to camp, the thought of his smile scared me. I could see it every time I closed my eyes, no matter how hard I tried to put it out of my mind. 

I emerged into the clearing where we’d set up camp. Ian hadn’t moved, and Nick was pacing back and forth, carrying a panicked Echo.

Then I saw David.

He was on the ground, barely moving. His wings were twitching weakly. The icy ground around him was stained dark reddish-brown.

_Oh shit._

I ran to them, dropping to my hands and knees next to David. _“What happened?”_ I asked.

“ _He got shot in the stomach,”_ Ian replied. _“Might have hit his spine.”_

David’s eyes fluttered open, barely focusing on me. “Jonas…?” he mumbled.

“ _I killed him,”_ I said. _“He’s never gonna hurt anyone again.”_

Echo wriggled free of Nick’s grip, running over and curling up next to David. He purred and preened David’s bloodstained feathers for what felt like hours, while I wracked my brain trying to figure out what to do.

_There is nothing to do,_ I could hear Cole say in the back of my mind. _You failed. You couldn’t protect them, and now he’s going to die. You’re going to lead them all to their deaths. Best to go first._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my friend Saber on Discord, who co-wrote a small segment of this near the end because I had a really abrupt scene transition and I hate it when things just happen in stories.


End file.
